The Schwab Foundation is a sister concern organization of the World Economic Forum. The Foundation provides unique regional and global platforms to promote social entrepreneurship as a key element to advancing societies and addressing social problems innovatively and effectively.

Programs

SEOY 2014

Social Entrepreneur of the Year Awards (SEOY) 2014

The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, a sister organization of the World Economic Forum, in partnership with the Jubilant Bhartia Foundation announced Dr. H Sudarshan, Karuna Trust, as the winner of the Social Entrepreneur of the Year awards India-2014. The awards were conferred in New Delhi at a high-level celebration, in the presence of Mr Arun Jaitley, Minister of Finance, Corporate Affairs and Defence, Government of India, and over 200 participants.

Winner Dr H Sudarshan getting the Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award from Mr Arun Jaitley

SEOY 2014 Award Ceremony

Over 180 applicants entered the tenth annual Social Entrepreneur of the Year selection process for India, and three finalists emerged after several stages of rigorous assessment. An independent panel of pre-eminent judges met on 4 November to select the winner.

Karuna Trust is transforming dysfunctional government primary healthcare centers (PHCs) into professional hubs of ‘last mile’ healthcare service delivery.
It has pioneered a Public Private Partnership (PPP) model that brings the government, the village community and the social venture together to deliver high quality primary healthcare to rural India. The government invests in upgrading infrastructure and pays for the efficient running of the PHCs; Karuna Trust brings in healthcare management systems and disruptive health innovations to the centers; village health councils hold their PHCs accountable for reporting higher health outcomes and functioning as zeroorruption zones.

Karuna Trust has revitalized 67 PHCs across 7 states, half of which reach remote corners of North-East India. With ISO certification, trained medical and administrative teams, zero-absenteeism of doctors, upgraded infrastructure, tele-medicine, mobile medical units, efficient supply chain of essential medicines and a citizens help desk, PHCs run by Karuna Trust have raised the bar for primary healthcare service in India. They have served more than one million patients and reported health outcomes that are amongst the highest in the country.

Brief Descriptions of the other two Finalists

Matthew Spacie, Magic Bus, India

Magic Bus delivers a Sport for Development (S4D) curriculum that harnesses the transformative power of sport to enable children from impoverished communities to tap into their potential, reflect on their life choices, and take positive development decisions for themselves with regard to education, health, livelihoods and leadership – factors that are critical for their growth as active citizens. Till date, the S4D curriculum to 500,000 children in the age group of 7-18 years across 19 Indian states through a trained network of 8,000 Community Youth Leaders. 50% of all Magic Bus participants constitute girls from disadvantaged families.

Yogendra Bhushan, Bodh Shiksha Samiti, India

Bodh works with ultra-poor communities to transform their villages and slums into centers of education excellence. It has pioneered the common schools movement, where schools (called Bodhshalas) are built, managed and co-owned by mostly Below Poverty Line (BPL) communities in areas untouched by the government education system. Bodh has impacted more than 2 million students and 80,000 teachers in the state of Rajasthan. Additionally, Bodh’s best practices in improving education quality was adopted in 20,500 government schools in Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and Jharkhand and 100 social ventures have partnered with Bodh to scale the common school model to 13 states.